It’s been a busy week centered around one of the biggest and most technically challenging shoots I have ever worked on. To celebrate the launch of Sky 3D, Europe’s first 3D TV Channel, we brought to life on Earth a scene from “The Universe” for photography and video. 8 giant helium balloons, painted like the planets and measuring between 6 and 1m in diameter were suspended over Greenwich Park as a crew of balloon engineers wrestled with the controls in a stiff wind. As per usual, I wish to keep the exact technical process a secret, but it took over 12 Pro-Foto heads at maximum power to freeze the movement of the balloons within a long ambient light exposure for the city background.

The images are again destined for the Getty Wire Service so absolutely zero retouching was applied. The final image was the culmination of over 100 hours work by a team of 17. Huge thanks to Will from Cake, Tim Bowditch my assistant , Pam at Orchard and Direct Lighting for a stadium’s worth of lighting kit.